Global trade leaders to meet in Perth

Trade ministers from across the Asia-Pacific will converge on Perth in November, joining German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and most of his Cabinet for what is shaping up to be one of the city’s biggest international business conferences.

Almost three dozen multinational business leaders will also speak at the conference aimed at strengthening ties between Australia, Germany and the Asia-Pacific, along with delegates from the World Economic Forum, European Union, Austrade, the CSIRO and Business Council of Australia.

The Asia-Pacific Regional Conference has secured the attendance of trade or foreign affairs dignitaries from Germany, Singapore, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Brunei and Indonesia.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, who organised the conference as the culmination of his work chairing the Australia Germany Advisory Group, said it would strengthen Australia’s relationship with Germany.

“The objective here is to obviously pursue opportunities for Australia and Germany to do more business with each other, for business in Australia to do more business in Germany and German business to do more business in Australia,” Senator Cormann said.

“But it is also to position Australia as a bridge to the broader Asia-Pacific as a like-minded friendly country in this part of the world, that can be a bridge for German companies and for us doing business together to the Asia-Pacific which is the part of the world where most of the global growth will be generated for years, if not decades.”

Camera IconGerman President and former foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.Picture: AP

The conference will be the biggest gathering of German and Australian business and political leaders, with about 1000 delegates expected.

Having used his German-speaking background — he was born in the German-speaking town of Eupen in eastern Belgium — to lead the AGAG group since it was established in 2014, Senator Cormann said that he believed that there was much untapped potential to increase ties between the two countries.

“In the German mind, they love Australia, they love their perceptions of Australia, but they probably historically have perceived us too much as an exciting holiday destination rather than as a serious economic power which we are,” he said.

“So we are working on really through stronger bilateral engagement on making sure that there is an increased understanding in Germany of the level of opportunity there is both in Australia and out of Australia in to the broader region.”